Judge sets hearing in Ohio provisional-votes fight

11/5/12 3:36 PM EST

A federal judge has set a hearing for Wednesday morning—the morning after Election Day—to hear arguments about the rules for counting provisional ballots in Ohio.

U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley set the 11 A.M. Wednesday session in Columbus via an order issued Monday afternoon and posted here.

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted issued a directive Friday that requires voters to complete the identification section on provisional ballots, rather than pollworkers. A variety of unions, a homeless-aid group and the Ohio Democratic Party say having voters fill that out themselves could lead to inaccuracies or errors. The labor groups and Democrats have asked Marbley to order the state to count provisional ballots even if that identification information is incomplete.

"Since this suit bears on Ohio’s conduct of the November 6, 2012 election, it is appropriate to deviate from the Local Rules in order to expedite the briefing schedule and timely resolve the question. The timing is particularly sensitive given the need for Defendant Husted and the State of Ohio to issue instructions to election officials in conformity with this Court’s decision prior to the counting of provisional ballots," Marbley wrote in Monday's order.

Marbley gave Ohio authorities until the end of the day Tuesday to file any written opposition to the plaintiffs' demand.

The judge appears to view the matter as not of such urgency as to require action before Election Day because the relief the plaintiffs' are seeking is not to change Husted's order to pollworkers regarding who fills out the ID information, but rather the question of which ballots will ultimately be counted.

Under Ohio law, the provisional ballots cannot be officially tabulated before Nov. 17th.